2012 News Roundup from ENAT

Here is a brief overview of some of the accessible tourism news, events and articles from 2012.

2012 has seen a number of important developments in Europe, as the European Commission's "Preparatory Action on Accessible Tourism for All" was launched at a Hearing at the European Parliament.in February.

The Commission has tendered for three major studies of accessible tourism demand, supply and training needs, which will be carried out in 2013.

The Tourism Training and Skills Study has just been awarded to the partnership of VVA (Milan), ENAT, 3s Research (Vienna) and Via Libre (Madrid). As part of this study, ENAT will be getting in touch with members, partners and training organisations to gather information and identify training curricula and programmes which can lead to future European training initiatives.  

National Tourist Boards have been invited to prepare National Award schemes for accessible tourism leading to new European Excellence Awards in 2013. 

The Region of Veneto (an ENAT Member), the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission held a Seminar on Accessible Tourism in Treviso, Italy in November where several presentations shared important information and explored ways to develop new inclusive tourism programmes at regional level. This event was followed by a conference on regional tourism development organised by another ENAT Member, Paris Île-de-France Region at its Brussels office. 

We look forward to further exciting activities in 2013 as our ENAT members develop projects in the context of the UNWTO - Fundación ONCE - ENAT collaboration, Lifelong Learning and other initiatives, as well as national and international seminars and conferences in Italy, Spain and elsewhere throughout the year.

As always, please send us news, articles and event announcements about your activities to promote and improve tourism accessibility and inclusion. We like to share!

Thanks to all our ENAT Members for your invaluable support thoughout the year.

With our best greetings of the season to all our members and subscribers, and wishing you a successful New Year, 2013!

Ivor Ambrose, Managing Director  
 

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